At Amazon’s AWS re:Invent conference this morning, the company announced a new platform for mainframe migration and modernization called simply “AWS Mainframe Modernization,” which aims to help AWS customers get off their mainframes “as fast as they possibly can” in order to take better advantage of the cloud. Today, customers may take a couple of […]
This Week in Apps: Twitter launches livestream shopping, Netflix snags new games, Tile gets acquired
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes […]
Roku customers report streaming issues after 10.5 update
A number of Roku customers are experiencing problems with their Roku TVs following the Roku OS 10.5 update. According to reports published to Roku’s own customer forums and other sites, like Reddit, impacted Roku TV owners say many of their streaming apps — like HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ and others, no longer […]
Walmart will be the first retailer to test Twitter’s new livestream shopping platform
Twitter’s e-commerce initiatives now include livestream shopping and Walmart will be the first retailer to test the new platform. Over the past year, Walmart has invested in live shopping by hosting events across social platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and soon it will debut Twitter’s first-ever shoppable livestream. On November 28, Walmart will kick off […]
TikTok brings its TV app to more devices across the US and Canada
Just ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holidays, TikTok is expanding its footprint in the living room. The company earlier this month launched its TV app in North America in partnership with Amazon Fire TV. Today, TikTok is rolling out its TV app to more TV platforms across North America, including Google TV and other Android […]
This Week in Apps: Apple defends app ad buying, Spotify gains lyrics, Instagram kills Threads
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spending in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes […]
Hulu + Live TV is adding Disney+ and ESPN+ to its service for an additional $5 per month
Hulu is getting a sizable upgrade starting next month that will give its Live TV subscribers access to both the Disney+ and ESPN+ streaming services as part of their plan. Beginning on December 21, 2021, Hulu + Live TV subscriptions across both its ad-free and ad-supported tiers will bundle in access to Disney’s other streaming […]
Waldo brings its ad-free, private photo-sharing service direct to consumers
Waldo, a photo-sharing platform that has historically targeted businesses, schools, camps, sports leagues, and other organizations, is capitalizing on the growing anti-Facebook sentiment to promote its newly launched consumer product. The company today is introducing a service aimed at private photo-sharing among family and friends which it’s promoting as an “ad-free, non-toxic” and private alternative […]
Instagram will shut down its companion app Threads by year end
Instagram’s standalone messaging app Threads is shutting down. The app will no longer be supported by the end of December 2021, the company confirmed to TechCrunch after reports began circulating via social media of its impending closure. Instagram is planning to alert its existing Threads users with an in-app notice beginning on November 23, which […]
Spotify’s new Podcast Subscriptions expand to global markets
Just a few months after launching support for podcast subscriptions to U.S. creators, Spotify today is making the service available to creators in global markets. The company says the service, which allows creators to mark episodes as “subscriber-only” content, will now become available in 33 new markets worldwide. When podcast subscriptions publicly launched in the […]